10 Best Anime Like Thermae Romae Novae You Need to Watch
Thermae Romae was a manga written and drawn by Mari Yamazaki. It was published between December 2008 and March 2013, and was compiled into a total of six volumes. The series was adapted into a flash anime series that aired on Fuji TV in 2012 and a full anime ONA series titled Thermae Romae Novae, that premiered on Netflix in March 2022.
In this article, we are going to bring you a list of the 10 best anime series like Thermae Romae Novae you need to watch.
1. Bessatsu Olympia Kyklos
Original Run: April 20, 2020 – November 2, 2020
Number of Episodes: 24
Demetrios, a shy and amiable vase painter in ancient Greece who dislikes sports and competitions, is forced one day to think up a game to compete with the mayor of the neighboring town to save his village. While hiding in a large vase outside his workshop, lightning strikes the vase in which Demetrios is, transporting him to Tokyo, Japan, during the 1964 Summer Olympics.
2. Sekkō Boys
Original Run: January 8, 2016 – March 25, 2016
Number of Episodes: 12
The young Miki Ishimoto after earning a degree at an art institute, which made her hate the design of statues, in particular, decides to present herself for a job in an entertainment agency, her assignment is to do from manager to a group of idols made up of statues.
3. Re:Zero − Starting Life in Another World
Original Run: April 4, 2016 – March 24, 2021
Number of Episodes: 50 (+ 2 OVA + 50 ONA)
One day, leaving a convenience store, a Japanese high school student in a tracksuit named Subaru Natsuki is transported to a parallel world without any explanation. While trying to make his mark in this new world, Subaru is attacked by a band of bandits.
On the verge of death, he is saved by a silver-haired half-elf named “Satela,” accompanied by a cat-like spirit, Pack. To reciprocate, he decides to help her with her daily chores, including finding the badge stolen from her by Felt, a young girl living on theft.
Later, in the slums of the city, they are attacked and killed by a mysterious person. Before dying, Subaru promises Satela that he will do anything to save her.
4. Nobunaga Concerto
Original Run: July 12, 2014 – September 20, 2014
Number of Episodes: 10
The story takes place in 21st century Japan. Coming home from school and by a crazy coincidence, a student named Saburo is transported to the 16th century in the Japan of the Sengoku period. There he meets Oda Nobunaga, chief of the Oda clan, and very influential person in the history of the country.
The two young men resembling each other like two drops of water and Nobunaga having fragile health, the latter asks Saburo to take his place. Saburo accepts the request and must ensure that all of Nobunaga’s historical events run their course if he is to be able to return to his modern day.
5. Boku-no-imoutowa”Osaka-okan”
Original Run: December 21, 2012 – March 15, 2013
Number of Episodes: 12 + 1
Kyosuke and Namika are brothers, but fate has kept them apart for ten years. One day Namika returns to settle in her brother’s house, but the habits and dialect of the city of Osaka – where she has lived in the past years – are now natural to her. It is now up to Kasuga to put up with his sister’s whims and her habits so unusual in her eyes.
6.Ya Boy Kongming!
Original Run: April 5, 2022 – scheduled
Number of Episodes: TBC
The famous military strategist Zhuge Liang Kongming met his end in the battle in the Wuzhang plains. On his deathbed, he wishes that his next life will be in a peaceful place without bloodshed. He is reborn (in his youth) in modern Japan and shows up in the middle of a Halloween costume party in Tokyo’s club district. The party people of Shibuya lure him into a nightclub where he meets Eiko Tsukimi, an aspiring singer, and begins his second life.
7. Hetalia: Axis Powers
Original Run: January 24, 2009 – June 17, 2021
Number of Episodes: 147 (+ 4 OVA)
The anime is made up of short five-minute episodes. The episodes of the first four seasons have no title, except for some for which the titles are indicated in the previews at the end of the previous episode. The episodes of Hetalia – The Beautiful World instead all have a title. All the episodes are divided into several scenes separated from each other by an image with the title logo and the various characters that pop up from behind the title saying “Hetalia” in different ways.
The scenes can be self-contained, or linked together with various subplots that continue over the course of several episodes with one scene or more for each episode. Some subplots also have a title, such as Chibitalia which tells the story of Italy as a child and the Holy Roman Empire.
The main plot can be considered that of the Second World War in which Italy and Japan are militarily trained by Germany on a desert island and are sometimes attacked by the United States and China, often after Allied meetings, but this plot, especially from the second season, is sacrificed in favor of the others.
The episodes end with the final theme, entitled “Maru kaite chikyū” and sung in the first season only by the character of Italia (i.e. by his voice actor Daisuke Namikawa), while in the second season there are different versions sung on the same musical base by different voice actors in the role of their characters.
Starting from episode 62 (tenth of Hetalia World Series) the final theme is “Hata futte parade”, also sung in different versions by the various characters. For Hetalia – The Beautiful World the final theme is “Mawaru chikyū rondo”, sung again by Italia / Daisuke Namikawa. After the ending theme, there may be another scene, and sometimes there are sneak peeks of the next episode.
8. Gin Tama
Original Run: April 4, 2006 – March 25, 2010
Number of Episodes: 201
In the Edo era, Japan was invaded by aliens called Amanto, creatures of various shapes, but all more or less humanoid. These manage to defeat the samurai after long fights. From then on, a radical futurition cut with the classic decoration of Japan is set up and the Amanto forbid the wearing of the saber in public. Despite everything, there are still some who prefer to keep their bushido. In this completely anachronistic Japan, there are still people who refuse to give up their saber.
Among them is Gintoki Sakata, an eccentric former samurai who helps a teenager named Shinpachi Shimura, save his sister Tae from a group of aliens who want her to join a brothel. Impressed by Gintoki, Shinpachi becomes his apprentice and works with him as a handyman with the goal of paying Gintoki’s rent.
9. Fire Tripper
Original Run: December 16, 1985
Number of Episodes: 1 (OVA)
Suzuko is a normal Japanese high school student who has a strange memory that she was once trapped in a burning house as a child. One day, while accompanying Shuhei, the child of her neighbor whose appendix had been removed, a large explosion occurred. When Suzuko wakes up, she finds herself in 16th-century Japan while the civil war was still going on, surrounded by corpses.
Some men find her in a field and decide to rape her. However, young Shukumaru saved her and took her to his village. When they arrive, Shukumaru gives his little sister, Suza, a bell. He also claims he will marry Suzuko. She unveils Shuhei’s T-shirt and concludes that he, too, traveled with her by force of circumstances. She tries to find him, but without success.
The villagers tease Shukumaru because he has not slept with Suzuko yet, and he is very offended. One night he gets drunk and goes to her hut, but just falls asleep. Suzuko soon realizes that she is actually a little girl, Suzu, and that she was born during Shukumaru’s time. She is worried because she fell in love with him, but that would fall away if she was related.
When the village is set on fire, she sees herself as a child disappearing into the future, where she will be adopted and raised as a modern girl. The leader of the clan that attacks the village also attacks Shukumaru, and Suzuko saves him by disappearing with him into the future, where he realizes that the fire allows her to travel through time.
Back in present-day Japan, Suzuko takes Shukumaru to his home to take care of his wounds and notices that he has an identical scar on his abdomen as Shuhei from his appendix surgery. Suzuko realizes that Shukumaru is actually Shuhei, and that he probably separated from her as they traveled through time earlier.
Shukumaru is Shuhei from the present, and was found and raised in the past from the beginning, and is therefore not her brother. Suzuko, however, does not feel guilty about what happened to Shukumaru when he tells her how he enjoyed life in the past. Suzuko and Shukumaru used the same explosion in the beginning to return to Japan in the 16th century. The story ends when Shukumaru announces that they have to go to the wedding.
10. Vinland Saga
Original Run: July 7, 2019 – present
Number of Episodes: 24
Combining historical figures and events with many fictional elements, Vinland Saga is the story of the life of a young Icelandic man, Thorfinn Thorsson. This son of an illustrious repentant warrior will see his life turned upside down when his father is assassinated by pirates led by the cunning Askeladd. Driven by revenge, Thorfinn will follow and then integrate this gang, with the displayed desire to kill his father’s assassin in a loyal duel. Thorfinn’s vengeful quest is the common thread of the story’s prologue.
It will lead him, in particular, to participate in the invasion of England by the Danes at the beginning of the eleventh century. This part of the story brilliantly treats various subjects such as war, politics, religion, and paints a convincing and human portrait of the daily life of the populations’ victims of the war but also and especially of the warriors, far away from the clichés usually conveyed by the Vikings.
